Permission Plus

Family Lore has alerted me to this curious decision of Lord Justice Wall on permission (RW v SW [2010] EWCA Civ 457 (29 April 2010)). Wall LJ adjourned off a father’s application for permission to appeal to a two judge court notwithstanding the fact that his own view was that the appeal had no reasonable [...]

Lib Dem Contact Proposals

A colleague emails: …When looking through the LibDem manifesto this week, I noticed an express commitment, buried deep in the document at page 52, which may be of some interest (and reads, as follows)…. “The Liberal Democrats will “introduce a default contact arragangement, which would divide the child’s time between their two parents in the [...]

Just as you thought it was safe to go back in the courtroom…

The snappily titled and easy to read Children Schools and Families Act 2010 has landed on our virtual desks. Not yet in force owing to the impending election (‘What election?’ I hear you say) the Bill made it through ‘wash-up’ and received Royal Assent only moments before Parliament was dissolved, to gasps of relief all [...]

Allocate this

I’ve been thinking about blame lately. You lose count in this job of the number of people you meet who don’t want to take responsibility for their own actions. Husband blames wife (and vice versa) or the new boyfriend, client blames lawyer, social worker, child, the system – for failed relationships, for poor parenting, for [...]

Social Workers: Arrogant and Enthusiastic Removers of Vegetarians?

I’m a bit slow off the mark this week but I do want to report this: Lord Justice Wall has been widely reported as criticising social workers for being “arrogant and enthusiastic removers of children from their parents”. It doesn’t look as if he will be a wallflower of a President, does it? . In [...]

Newsflash!

Something on which Camilla Cavendish and I agree (how novel).

Getting Down to it

Maternity leave is over. It’s a day in chambers gathering my thoughts tomorrow and then a full week of hearings next week. . In some ways I”ll be glad to be back in the swing of things, but I wish it weren’t so soon. However, since we are only able to maintain our lavish lifestyle [...]

Not Rising to the Challenge

You dare me to publish your comments, but they are full of private information about your child and the proceedings surrounding his care. I could not publish them if I wanted to. You dare me to publish your comments, but they are full of material that is probably defamatory. I cannot publish them. You dare [...]

Judicial Appointments Commission Get Linked In

I was interested to receive a message in my in box on LinkedIn today encouraging me to visit this website run by the Judicial Appointments Commission website to find out more about the changing face of the judiciary. This is a really innovative use of social media by the legal community and is a great [...]

Motherhood v Work

I’ve been promising myself that I would write this blog post for some time. But finding a moment to sit in front of the computer when I have the mental agility, free hands and sheer will to get it down on screen has been nigh on impossible. Boy 2.0 is now six weeks old and [...]